


With Friends Like These

by LaLainaJ



Series: Make Some Noise [172]
Category: The Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Human, F/M, Jealousy, Married Couple, Office
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-11
Updated: 2018-12-11
Packaged: 2019-09-16 03:23:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,091
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16946049
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LaLainaJ/pseuds/LaLainaJ
Summary: Katherine overhears something interesting in a bathroom. Caroline is less than amused.





	With Friends Like These

**With Friends Like These**

**(Prompt: can you do one where Klaus and Caroline are coworkers who are always getting into heated screaming matches during team meetings and everyone who works with them is just used to it, but the new girl is like wtf? and then later finds out that they're actually married and don't hate each other? Rated T.)**

The office is deserted – its 7 PM on a Friday – so Caroline's startled when she hears a noise in the wall. It's a familiar staccato series of taps. Heels, eating up the distance quickly, and she rolls her chair back, grabbing her phone from the corner of the desk.

She's about to go and see what's happening, check if there's some kind of emergency, when Kat barrels in. Her eyes are wide with what Caroline suspects is glee, her hair a wild windblown mass of curls. Her jacket is only half buttoned and she tosses aside her purse, rushing towards Caroline and grabbing her arms. "You will not believe what I just heard!"

Caroline lets herself be shaken, taking another confused look at Kat's dishevelment. "Did you run from the bar? Thought you were going to try to seduce the new guy."

Katherine looks offended, pulling back and smoothing a hand down the front of her dress. "Try? Please. Mason's a sure bet. He'll keep until next week."

"Wow," Caroline drawls. "Something came up that's kept you from guaranteed sex? Must be big."

Katherine tosses her hair over her shoulder and letting out an irritated huff. "Yeah, yeah, mock me. We don't all get to schedule regular freaky married sex."

It takes a fair amount of willpower not to tear her eyes away and she lifts her chin stubbornly. Katherine  _might_  know far too many details about Caroline and Klaus' sex life but that's only because Caroline gets a little over share-y when tequila's involved in a girl's night out. And because Kat's more than willing to take advantage of Caroline's drunken loose lips. Klaus is shameless enough not to care, even when Kat's comments get overly pointed. If anything, he leans into it, radiates smugness when the topic comes up. He'll let his hands linger and do his best to make Caroline blush, until everyone in their vicinity is either annoyed or amused. Caroline is working on building up the same aplomb in the face of Kat's suggestive smirks and taunts.

"You seem to do just fine in the freaky sex department," Caroline snipes back.

Katherine grins, slow and  _very_  pleased with herself. "I really do."

Caroline groans, walking over to the couch that lines one wall of her office. "I do not want to have this conversation with you."

Her dry spell is hours away from ending and she's  _really_  looking forward to it.

Klaus has been gone for ten days, dealing with inspections for the new hotel the company is opening in London. Caroline's team is busy putting together room concepts so she hadn't been able to justify taking the time away to accompany him.

She likes phone sex as much as the next girl whose husband has a hot accent but it gets old after a few days. She misses having a warm body to roll into at night; the way he wakes he scrapes his morning beard against her shoulder when she grumbles about the alarm. Brushing her teeth solo is weirdly lonely now, she's so used to passing Klaus the toothpaste and bumping his hip with hers every morning as they get ready for the day.

"Someone's cranky!" Katherine sings. She circles Caroline's desk, helping herself to the bourbon that's stashed in the lowest drawer. "My news might not help you."

Oh joy.

Caroline slouches low, letting her legs flop rather ungracefully. Her shoes are long gone and she idly rubs her nylons against the rug. "And yet, you rushed all the way back here to tell me about it?" She doesn't take it personally, having become accustomed to Katherine's somewhat warped concept of friendship.

"It's just too hilarious. I couldn't not."

Katherine's sense of humor is an acquired taste, so Caroline braces herself. "Alright, hit me."

"Uh uh. Let me set the scene."

"And people say  _I'm_  dramatic."

Kat ignores the complaint, lifting the bottle high. "There I am, in the ladies room…"

"Taking off your panties so you could stuff them in Mason's pocket?"

"Please. Like you've never used that move."

Caroline can honestly say that she hasn't (Klaus likes to remove her lingerie himself) but Katherine's already continuing her tale. She perches on the edge of Caroline's desk, wiggling in an effort to get comfortable.

So it's not going to be a short story.

Caroline presses her lips together, holding in a sigh, glancing at the clock. She's supposed to grab Klaus from the airport at eleven and she'd planned go home and change into something easier to remove beforehand. Hopefully Katherine can resist the urge to embellish  _too_  extensively.

"I'm minding my own business, about to flush, when I hear a familiar name."

"Yours?"

"Nope, yours. Preceded and followed by some very colorful descriptors." She pauses expectantly, eagerly watching for Caroline's reaction.

Only to be disappointed when Caroline shrugs, emitting only a dismissive, "Somehow I'll survive." The last time she'd really been overly concerned with other people liking her she'd owned pom poms.

Katherine, however, isn't finished.

"Really? What if I were to tell you that our little bathroom gossiper had very complimentary things to say about your hubs?"

Caroline's hands curl into the couch's cushions, a teeny flare of jealousy flaring bright.

She's an only child and she gets a little possessive, okay? Klaus is into it. He's also no stranger to getting growly and shooting murder eyes and staking a claim and, since he's got a bajillion siblings, he doesn't even have the same justification for being bad at sharing.

Those incidents usually result in an immediate need for privacy (or the reasonable facsimile found behind a locked office door or the backseat of a car). The next day they'll sleep in, there will be hickies on her thighs and scratches on his back, and they'll eat dessert for breakfast.

Honestly, Caroline kind of loves that particular ritual, knows very well that Klaus does too.

"Not everyone thinks Klaus is awful," Caroline points out.

"Because most people are dumb and lack my excellent taste."

Caroline eyes the bottle, seriously considering chugging a bit and just calling a cab when it's time to collect Klaus. She really doesn't want to be drunk for their reunion but, if Kat doesn't hurry up and get to a point, it might be her best option. "I love you so I'm going to ignore the fact that you kinda just called me dumb."

Katherine scoffs, "You're not dumb, just dickmatized."

It's a good thing she's not drinking because she would have choked. Caroline's laugh sputters out, grows in volume, and she has to cover her mouth when it becomes hard to control herself. Her eyes water a little as she finally manages to stop giggling, "Yeah, I'm totally telling Klaus that you said that. He'll take it as a compliment."

"Literally the only nice thing I'll ever say about him is that you're far more bearable and less uptight than you used to be. I credit the regular orgasms."

She and Katherine had been hired at about the same time and, in the beginning, hadn't gotten along overly well. Kat now heads The Mikaelson Group's marketing department, is a wizard at luring in celebs and influencers and making their hotels a coveted destination. Caroline had worked her way up to run a design team. It's how she'd met Klaus (and they'd butted heads too in the early days) coordinating with him and his architect minions. These days they work together just fine but in the first few months Caroline had left a meeting or two spitting mad and cursing Katherine's name.

"I, too, am a big fan of orgasms," Caroline admits. "Though, honestly, you should really give cuddling a try. It's totally relaxing."

"Ew, pass."

It's an argument they've had before.

"Anyway," Katherine says, so loudly that Caroline instinctively glances towards the door to make sure her assistant hasn't come running to referee. "Back to my story. Greta Martin thinks you should stop being a total bitch to Klaus in meetings. Oh, and she's also planning on banging him."

Well, now she's pissed. Caroline sits up, voice rising with her outrage. "I am not…"

Katherine cuts her off, "You have been a little snippy this week."

Only because Klaus has been baiting her.

"That's just how we are. He pokes, I prod. He's annoyingly smug, all 'oh, aren't I the cleverest?' and I like to knock him down."

"Verbal foreplay is your thing," Katherine says, adding a knowing nod.

She throws her hands up, collapsing back again. "Exactly! My marriage is freaking great and if that…"

Again, she doesn't get to work up to a proper rant. Super annoying.

"That's the best part!" Katherine crows. "She has no idea you and Klaus are married! Talk about dumb people."

That's mollifying. Slightly. Caroline will just have to make things clear. Plans begin to form. She discards the racier ones (unless Greta proves to be unwilling to take a hint). She twists her wedding band absently, "How has she not noted the rings?"

"Forget the rings. How she hasn't noted Klaus' doofy besotted face whenever you walk into a room is the bigger issue. Maybe she needs glasses?"

Caroline will get her assistant to shoot Greta an email detailing the company's excellent insurance coverage on Monday.

She hears the bottle clink and she shakes off her mental lists, shooting Katherine a glare. "You know, it would have been easy for you to clear up her misconceptions in that bathroom."

Kat's brows rise and she shoots Caroline a look like she's just said something totally insane. "And deprive myself of prime workplace drama? Please. You know how bored I get on Wednesdays when I have to sit in those dumb legal meetings."

Caroline's displeasure must read on her face because Kat tosses her a bright smile, leaning forward and offering the bottle. Her tone turns placating, "Oh, relax, Cupcake. It's harmless. You'll probably forget all about this little snafu over the weekend."

Caroline's does have big plans.

"Maybe," she allows grudgingly. She stands, straightening her pencil skirt. "Speaking of, I should go home and make myself pretty."

"You're going to do that gross airport make out thing, aren't you?"

Caroline smiles, not trying to hide the slightly mocking edge to it. "Usually, we would yeah. But Elijah's flying back with Klaus and he's not a guy who tolerates a scene."

She relishes the freezing of Katherine's body, the widening of her dark eyes. Her hand flexes, looking for the bottle that had recently been clutched there.

Caroline withholds it, setting it down and out of reach. Kat's glee over her discoveries means Caroline feels not even a hint of shame in relishing the opportunity to see Katherine squirm a bit.

She's not entirely sure what had gone down at the Christmas party last year (Katherine ia way better at keeping secrets no matter how much liquor is applied) but she knows Kat's red lip had been rubbed off and Elijah's vest had been buttoned incorrectly when she and Klaus had met the odd couple at the elevator bank.

Kat's twitched a little at the mention of Elijah's name ever since.

She adopts her sweetest expression, "Maybe the legal meetings will be more exciting when Elijah's leading them in person, hmm?"

Katherine's mouth opens. Closes. Then she manages to speak, a single clipped syllable. "What?"

"He's transferring back."

Caroline watches as Kat absorbs the info, her expression going carefully blank. She wiggles her toes to get her heels back in place before hopping off the desk. "I need to…"

She doesn't finish her sentence, stalking out of the office. Caroline watches her go, both satisfied and bursting with curiosity. A speechless Katherine Pierce? Caroline never thought she'd see the day.

She makes a mental note to tell Klaus, to wheedle until he agrees to pump Elijah for info. She doesn't often get bored at work, not when she can just pop into Klaus' office and poke around in his projects whenever there's a lull. But he has another trip on his calendar next month.

She's not going to turn down a little in office entertainment while he's gone.


End file.
